


And After All

by mwrites (SunriseMagpie)



Category: Yesterday (2019)
Genre: Ellie Appleton and Jack Malik's Wedding, F/M, Other Songs that Disappeared, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:47:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21965194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunriseMagpie/pseuds/mwrites
Summary: Some songs encapsulate a moment, and others tell a story. This one does both.
Relationships: Ellie Appleton/Jack Malik
Comments: 7
Kudos: 15
Collections: Yuletide Madness 2019





	And After All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lunarknightz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarknightz/gifts).



Jack plays a song for Ellie at their wedding reception.

He shifts nervously on the stool, adjusting the microphone stand up and down a few times while Ellie watches him with a fond, soft smile. Jack fiddles with the guitar strap and clears his throat twice before he speaks.

“Um, hi,” he says, with an awkward little wave. “This is a song for Ellie. I didn’t write it, but it’s a classic, and apparently it’s one of the ones that didn’t get written over here.”

A soft chuckle spreads through the room. Most of Jack and Ellie’s family and friends still aren’t sure what to make of Jack’s sudden fame and the subsequent plunge into obscurity. Half of them surely think that Jack wrote all his famous songs in a post-accident concussive fugue state, but Ellie believes him, and that’s what matters.

Ellie’s soft smile grows until her face looks as if it might split open with the force of her joy. Jack returns an equally besotted look, and one of the younger attendees mimes vomiting until his mother delivers a swift cuff to the back of his head.

Jack looks down at his fingers on the frets, takes a deep breath, and begins to sing.

_Today is gonna be the day that they're gonna throw it back to you  
By now, you should have somehow realised what you gotta do  
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now_

Ellie’s eyes are misty. If Jack says he didn’t write it, he didn’t write it. But the lyrics certainly reflect how she felt, agonizing over letting Jack go, knowing she couldn’t hold him back from success. Perhaps, in another world, this still could have been their song.

_Backbeat, the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out  
I'm sure you've heard it all before, but you never really had a doubt  
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now_

Actually, scratch that, _this_ verse is about her letting Jack go. This song is so perfect, so soft and sweet, that Ellie almost wants to go to Jack now, whisper in his ear that he shouldn’t be playing this for everyone they know—that this should be private, just for the two of them.

_And all the roads we have to walk are winding  
And all the lights that lead us there are blinding  
There are many things that I would like to say to you  
But I don't know how_

Some songs encapsulate a moment, and others tell a story. This one does both. The tears spill down Ellie’s cheeks now while Jack sings about his perilous stardom. Sings about wanting to trust her, wanting to see her again. Wanting her, full stop.

_Because maybe  
You're gonna be the one that saves me  
And after all  
You're my wonderwall_

Jack’s voice wobbles, and his eyes are shining now too. Ellie’s heart is so full of love for this wonderful, wonderful man, and for the life they’ve already begun to build together.

_Today was gonna be the day, but they'll never throw it back to you  
By now, you should've somehow realised what you're not to do  
I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now_

Ellie’s barely listening to the words anymore. She stands up from her seat at the table and Jack's eyes follow her as he sings. She goes to stand next to him and squeezes his shoulder. He glances up at her, quickly flashing her a grin before refocusing.

_And all the roads that lead you there were winding  
And all the lights that light the way are blinding  
There are many things that I would like to say to you  
But I don't know how_

She rests her cheek on his head and closes her eyes. She has the rest of her life to be serenaded by him, by Jack Malik originals and by lost songs from a parallel universe. 

_I said maybe  
You're gonna be the one that saves me  
And after all  
You're my wonderwall  
I said maybe (I said maybe)  
You're gonna be the one that saves me (That saves me)  
You're gonna be the one that saves me (That saves me)  
You're gonna be the one that saves me  
You're gonna be the one that saves me  
And after all  
You're my wonderwall_

The last notes die out and Jack’s hands still on the guitar as Ellie tugs him around to kiss him soundly while the room bursts into cheers and whistles. When they stop kissing to beam at each other, foreheads together, Jack whispers, “Anyway, that was Wonderwall.”

Ellie throws her head back and laughs. Clearly, it’s a joke, one she doesn’t fully understand, but Jack will explain it to her later. He always does. And he always will.


End file.
